This article explores the normative representations of higher education students in seven films and television series from four European countries. Drawing on the concept of the 'independent learner' as an 'ideal construction', I demonstrate how these texts offer complex and at times paradoxical representations of who gets positioned as the…

Sociolinguistics has seen an emergence of new theoretical perspectives that somehow cater for the, according to Li, 'complex linguistic realities of the twenty-first century' (2017, p.14). Thus 'overwriting' conventional ways of understanding language/language use and its relation to identity construction. Taking these changes as a starting point,…

That a certain class of verb commonly known as 'statives' is undergoing change in terms of the way in which certain verbs of this type are being used in everyday speech is nothing new to the field of linguistics. Much has been written about it, and the author of this paper alone has been preoccupied with the subject for many years now. However,…

Creative pedagogies within youth work practice are well established. Practitioners working with young people are often called upon to utilise their own personal and professional 'toolboxes', as a way of supporting 'Creative Arts Youth Work'. However, within Higher Education (HE), creative methods for teaching and learning within the university…

This paper explores the views of young people aged 12-14 on gender diversity, drawing upon school-based qualitative data from a study conducted in England in 2015-2016. Although earlier feminist and queer research in schools often found evidence of variable local gender cultures and gender non-conformity, we argue that the contemporary context,…

In this article, the author strengthens and develops the theoretical platform for her concept of little public spheres. Hickey-Moody does so in order to present the concept as a tool for theorists who want to consider the political significance of marginalized youth. The concept of little publics is a theoretical frame the author developed to show…

In numerous countries, pessimism about enduring social and educational inequalities has produced a discernible therapeutic turn in education policy and practice, and a parallel rise in therapeutic understandings of social justice. Focusing on developments in England and Finland, this article explores the ways in which radical/critical…

Young people can be motivated to learn science using the power of various entertainment media. The author states the need to recognise that they are accessing science through informal learning outside school. With children saying they have learnt from cartoons such as Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, it would seem that entertaining animations…

In this article, we explore the question of how celebrity operates in young people's everyday lives, thus contributing to the urgent need to address celebrity's social function. Drawing on data from three studies in England on young people's perspectives on their educational and work futures, we show how celebrity operates as a classed and…

In an increasingly diverse and digital society, understanding changes in contemporary communication practices that both draw from and extend beyond traditional principles of composition serves as an apt construct for exploring the nexus among youth, literacy and technology. This article will examine instances of urban youth exchanges in digital…

This volume includes three sections of the 2021 NORDSCI international conference proceedings: (1) Education and Educational Research; (2) Language and Linguistics; and (3) Sociology and Healthcare. Education and Educational Research includes 15 papers covering the full spectrum of education, including history, sociology and economy of education,…

The status of poetry both in the writing curriculum and in wider popular culture is best described as mixed (Wilson, 2009). In spite of a strong post-war tradition of enthusiasm for the teaching of poetry writing, it is currently felt to be marginalised in the writing curriculum (Dymoke, 2007; Ofsted, 2007). This paper reports on the beliefs,…

This article begins with Pollock's comment that Judith Butler "finds hope in failure" and its aim is to explore what "hope in failure" means in relation to A Level students' engagements with post-feminism and feminism. The article grounds its argument in an exploration of how post-feminism and feminism intersect with sixth form…

This article addresses the turbulent relationship that British cultural studies scholars have with the concepts of "class" and "tradition" and the problematic status of these key terms within the cultural studies literature. The authors maintain, in part, that these concepts have been deployed within a center-periphery thesis…

Popular culture includes stories that define and justify the existence of groups and nations. Among those stories are creation accounts, especially stories of the forming of nations through struggles for liberation from oppression. The useful liberation myths are exemplified by two recent films: "V for Vendetta" and "Children of…